Expert Series: South East Asia Property Awards 2015, for better developments

Terry Blackburn is one of the founding partners of Ensign Media in 2003 and was the founding editor of Property Report magazine. He oversaw the title’s expansion to become Asia’s leading media platform for luxury real estate, architecture and design. Remaining committed to Southeast Asia’s vibrant and emerging markets, he started in 2006 the highly successful Asia Property Awards series in Thailand, and over the years has expanded to Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam as it celebrates its tenth year in 2015.
1) Based on your experience, why are these awards very important to both the developers as well as the potential buyers?
The awards are judged by an independent panel of judges who are all experts in real estate and overseen by BDO one of the world’s largest auditing firms. All shortlisted properties are guaranteed site inspections, so we believe that our system is the most rigorous and detailed awards process anywhere and can be a benchmark for quality real estate. Whilst a buyer should always be very diligent and detailed when making any property purchase, we do believe that they can have an extra degree of confidence in South East Asia Property Award award winning properties. Any developer that wants to win an award has to deliver an exceptional product, which is presumably a good thing for them and raising standards in the market.
2) Sometimes, It is said that these awards normally favour the bigger developers. In your experience thus far, do smaller developers have the same chance to win?
Absolutely. The awards are primarily focused on developments, rather than developers. The judges are looking at the quality and merits of each development and their is certainly no bias towards big developers in that process. If is inevitable that the biggest companies will be more represented at the awards in general, but that’s only because they have more developments. In all the markets we work in, we often find its the boutique developers working outside the capital city that have the most innovative and high quality luxury products.
3) With the focus now being on ‘mid-level,’ are the developers under pressure to give more quality for less money?
I think that’s true in any market, as standards have to raised all the time to stand out from the competition, which is good news for buyers. Most developers want to market their property as luxury, so that’s why we have clearly defined price bands to differentiate between mid-range and luxury to keep it clear.
4) If Malaysia should benchmark another more developed property market for further improvements and refinements, which country should it be and why?
Thailand, because developers there have long had to innovate and improve in order to introduce a whole generation to the idea of condo living and to attract foreign buyers and capital. Also I would love to see Malaysia have resort property markets as diverse and developed as Phuket, Samui, Hua Hin and Pattaya.
Thanks Terry. Wishing your SEAPA journey a continuous success.